TRADING GOODS Coca-Cola soda marketing Coca-cola has more less the same marketing strategy employed all

over the world. Introduction If there is ever a brand or corporate brand that easily recognizable all over the world then it should be the Coca-cola soda brand. Whether you go to India, the headquarters in Atlanta, Nairobi or London there will be no substantial change in the marketing strategy. The brand recognition is clearly evident from the packaging. This can perhaps be attributed to a strong push for brand recognition in the market thus a lot of money is spend on marketing on a daily basis regardless of the market. If should be a belief of Coca-cola that when you are physically present as a brand, you will get alot of clients in the long run. Various countries have regulations however on marketing, and the company rarely abuses this by ensuring that it meets all the required legal standards. This is however not to say that the company is without blemish; there are several uncompetitive measures that have been employed by the company, both documented and undocumented pointing towards the abrasive and combatant nature of the company in struggling to keep existing markets and the acquisition of others. General marketing strategies The company has some general marketing strategies which are applied uniformly throughout the world in all its bottling firms and soda manufacturing avenues. These include but not limited to market expansion, which is done every time through running of various promotional campaigns

that will allure them to the public. They also have a very firm grip on the pricing of their products which are sold uniformly in certain markets. The prices are usually market for everyone to see and know how much a certain quantity of soda costs so as not to be fleeced hence creating dependence on the part of consumers, (Knowledge Inn, 2010). This as strategy hence forces all the distributors and the retailers to be at the mercy of the clients and company which first of all regulates the price and then does executive marketing so that one only has to stock the product and people will come to buy from him. There are however different strategies employed in every market hence the various markets are not similar and neither are the specific laws and cultures, which hampers the outward and abrasive techniques if need be. INDIA There is not a market that Coca-cola has faced a barrage of criticism like India. A lot of negative publicity on its actions in the rural areas led to closure of its plants, until its re-entry into the market in 1993 when everyone realized that the sub-continent was too important to the world economy to be ignored. Its sales plummeted in 2003 when Sanjiv Gupta was the C.E.O, just two weeks into his job, (Kaye, 2004). The bad publicity had to be countered fast and furious to make sure that the company survies, as was then since it seemed to be going under. A marketing strategy was thus employed which gobbled up a whopping $800million, (ICMR,2004) which narrowed on the following areas thus: Transportation to the consumers Focus on customers who eat and drink. Education and entertainment sectors

 Corporate centers Its advertisements are run in the many local Indian dialects with focus on the local superstars and celebrities like Ran Mukherjee, Simran, Amir Khan and Chiranjeev who enjoy a near fanatical following in the country. This therefore lures so many people to associate with the coca-cola brand even more. To reach its wide market of more than 700million people, the company distributes its products right across the country to its local retailers in the rural areas who are the biggest clients as they have the closest relationship with the customers. According to ICMR, the company regionalized the various parts of the country so that a strong brand will market the others while the diversification into the other non-traditional markets really played a big part. It packages water branded Kinley, Sunfill which are powdered soft drinks for poor Eastern India and Georgia which are tea and coffee blends. The company is currently running a programme to do away with the negative publicity it received in the start of the decade. Termed little drops of joy, it has a five pillar area of concern which is people, the planet, portfolio, the partners and performance, (Erickson, 2007). Its objective is to promote it as a responsible corporate citizen of the sub-continent of India. All TV commercials are aimed at creating a new image of the brand in the country. KENYA The company seems to have a roller coaster ride in this East African economic power house based on the information on its website. The company through its flagship Nairobi Bottlers Limited has won several awards with the recent being the Marketing award in the Company of the year awards. It has various brands on offer including Sparletta, Schweppes , the popular brands and bottled water called Dasani.

The year 2009 saw the company go heads to head with Diageo owned brewer, East African Breweries limited which made forays into its territory with the production of a soft drink named Novida that proved an instant hit with the middle class. The company hence launched its own brand called Novida which has flavors ranging from pineapple, pear, orange and cocktail. Its marketing message is that of someone, a very beautiful girl and a gentleman being carried aloft and taken higher on a mere sip, (website). The company campaign dubbed Live on the Coke side of life was a big hit throughout the country and so was an advert aired in Africa and Latin America about an African king who is a delegate at a conference who sets of ululations on merely tasting the drink which was acted by a local actor, Mr.. Bukeko who acts in local popular opera called Papa Shirandula. It allowed many Kenyans to identify with the drink and enjoy it fully. There is also a football tournament which is in its second year sponsored by the soft drinks giant and has so far received a lot of support from the locals and even the local media at large, (all Africa, 2007). SOUTH AFRICA Coke is said to have a 42% share in brand awareness while in a survey, 92 percent of urban dwellers mentioned it as the first soft drink on their mind, (Irwin, 2010). This has been attributed to the so-called savvy advertising and its tremendous job in the corporate social responsibility section in the myriad community projects that it has either supported or been involved in. every shop on the urban area has a Coke billboard or advertisement while the rural areas are dotted with the red colours on schools, water projects and many more community projects. The areas of involvement are sports, education through scholarships and bursaries which has made to to easily endear with the locals.

The many advertisements were the one run in 1990s which was pioneered by a South African powerhouse Sonnenberg Murphy Leo Burnett (SMLB) by associating it with Africas past time obsession, soccer. There then followed the advert shot in Morocco which likened the chilling and calming effect of drinking a Coke to that of a first kiss, an African boy who rises to stardom by selling Coke and the advert shot by Kenyas Charles Bukeko which have all been a hit and darlings of the local population. The control and grip that Coke has on the South African market can be exemplified by Pepsis demise from the market. The rival soft drinks giant entered the market with gusto and an ambitious marketing campaign purse but hat is evident today are mere relics, evidence of the grueling battle they faced and then vacated the market. It is unveiling three new advertisements for the 2010 world cup with one that has hit the web space being History of Celebration, influenced by the 1990 corner flag celebration by Cameroonian star, 58 year old Roger Miller. The second one is about a young ambitious African boy who plays on a dusty football pitch and meets images of animated players too celebrating their victory; called Quest while the third Border Crossing is a creation in support of the FIFA World Cup tour with Coke. This of course is a thinly veiled Coke advertisement with a mere FIFA decoy.

BRAZIL Perhaps it is never a bed of roses as they say, exemplified by whatever Coke has gone through in the expansive South American region and on a specific scale, the regions power house, Brazil. This was a market that was third in might in the companys stable only competing with Mexico to meet the USA until environmental challenges forced the tubainas to encroach in to Cokes

market in the mid 1990s onwards. The company has tried so hard to arm twist the region to gain control but rather in vain. The tubainas are the local sweeter soft drinks that are very popular with the locals. The Cola war never made things better as the company has had to contend with a shrunk market due to competition from Pepsi especially on the production Pepsi Twist in 2003 and its alliance with AmBev, a local manufacturer. The aforementioned products are largely not taxed yet they are produced en masse across the country with some even being sold regionally. This has hence been the toughest battle partly due to non-regulation of the sector although the government and trade unions feel that regulation will only stifle the growth of local industries and benefit foreign multinationals, with Coke being one of them. The rural and local economies are great beneficiaries of this war as the company has been unable to penetrate into the interior as from the start of this century and its market share has shrunk to an unimaginable levels. Pepsi has also been a thorn in the flesh of the companys expansion and they therefore share the spoils with the two of them being minority market share owners while the local drinks have the lions share. This obviously was not the case in the other case studies aforementioned above and al this ahs been a new and unnerving experience to the soft drinks giant. Perhaps what has gone on in South America is a true representation of what Coke does to gain market share in other regions where governments support their course as regards accusations that have been leveled against it in the past, highlighted by India. Fair competition should always be the practice and when one does not play by the rules, there will come a time when he will meet is match.

However the best way to encourage growth is to ensure there is a level playing field for both foreign and local owned enterprises in a country so that only market forces determine who survives. With this, there will be more development and even more competition leading to better returns for all, including the government in form of taxes, employment for its people and general human and capital investment injection into an economy.

CONCLUSION The might of Coke can never be underestimated a reason as to why many have called it the remaining relic of colonialism, neo-colonialists. It is evident that plans are a foot to make sure that the whole world is painted red, in the colour of Coca-Cola. South African lecturer and Marketing consultant Irwin writes that Coca Cola is a staticians dream. Over a billion beverages from Cokes factories are drowned each day; more than 128,000 Cokes are being drank somewhere on the planet in the time it takes you to read this sentence. Coke enjoys one hundred percent brand recognitionand it has managed to penetrate the toughest marketing barriers, including the restrictions of the Iranian Ayatollah or the iron fist of Chinese communism The above excerpt perhaps aptly captures what Coke has been able to do so far and its marketing campaigning more so through sports is worth awe. 2010 is a football world cup year and currently everyone is awash with all sorts of advertisements of the most entertaining event in the world. When the Cup was doing rounds in a record 148 states, it is transported in a Coke draped aero plane yet the cup is received by the Head of State which means capturing the tension of the whole country. The locals who take pictures around the cup have the brand Coke in the

background which thus means that the World Cup is Coke. It forever remains edged in the minds of many to their graves. The founder, ASA Chandler once told a gathering of directors that We are firmly convinced that wherever there are people and soda fountains, Coca-Cola will. win its way quickly into the front rank of popularity. Its modes of communication in developing countries are, (Fuchs, 2007): i. ii. iii. iv. v.
vi.

Billboards Signage Soda carts Kiosks Painted buildings

India and Kenya - Thailand - Senegal and Ghana - Central America - Guatemala and Madagascar

Shipping containers - Kenya.

This heralds the various strategies that the company has put in place to make sure that it captures the largely foreign third world market whose disposable income is low but should improve tremendously in the next decade. The bottom line therefore is advertising across the board, corporate social responsibility and constant rebranding to make sure that there is total brand recognition. This is the strategy that has been employed by Coke. Its consumers always see the brand wherever they go and more so in their leisure time. The most striking feature however is the use of local talent and stars to market their products to a local population. This is not the mentality that Western companies have always had as they believe non Westerners are not up to scratch but Coke has led the way in this revolution.

References Coca-cola India India Case Study. Marketing Startegy. Centre for Management Research, 2004. Coca-Colas Marketing Challenges in Brazil: The Tubanas War. Thunderbird. TheGavin School of International Management. Coca-Cola Recalls Magic With "Coke Side of Life. AllAfrica.comkenya. http://allafrica.com/stories/200712061130.html Jennifer Kaye; Coca-cola India. Trustees of Dartmouth College. (2004). Tuch School of Business. Miriam Fuchs. Coca Cola marketing in developing countries. Appropriate Infrustructure Development Group, (June 11, 2007). McCann Erickson. Coca Cola India : Little Drops of Joy. Marketing Practice, (September 8, 2007). http://marketingpractice.blogspot.com/2007/09/coca-cola-india-little-drops-of-joy.html http://www.cocacolasabco.com/Territory.aspx/Show/Kenya Ron Irwin. Painting South Africa red.brandchannel, (June 11, 2001).